A Bibliographical Study of the 30-folio Seoul-area Edition (Gyeongpan) of Sodaeseongjeon at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

This study aims to analyze the bibliographical features of the commercially printed woodblock (Bangakbon) 30-folio Seoul-area edition (Gyeongpan) of Sodaeseongjeon held at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) and to investigate its relationship with other Seoul-area editions of the same text by comparing their textual content. TUFS houses five identical copies of the 30-folio Sodaeseongjeon, all bearing the imprint ‘Hyogyo Singan’(孝敎新刊), meaning “newly engraved at Hyogyo.” This 30-folio edition shows similarities in format and in the number of characters per half-folio from folio 2 to folio 20 with the 24-folio edition. Specifically, from folio 3 to folio 20, the number of characters per half-folio ranges from 340 to 360, but it decreases to between 290 and 310 from folio 21 onwards, accompanied by a change in font style, indicating a composite printing style. Considering the unusual misengraving examples and the existence of multiple identical copies (five in total), it is presumed that this 30-folio edition at TUFS is a Japanese reprint of a Korean original published in Joseon bearing the ‘Hyogyo Singan’ imprint. The narrative length up to folio 20 in the 30-folio edition matches that of the 24-folio edition and shows little difference compared to the 36-folio edition. In the concluding section, however, the 30-folio edition has more narrative content than the 24-folio edition, yet less than the 23-folio and 36-folio editions. Textual comparison reveals that from folio 21 onward, especially in the war narratives, the 24-folio edition significantly abridges the content present in the 30-folio edition, whereas the 36-folio edition expands upon it, making the 30-folio edition most similar to the 23-folio edition in this section. The 36-folio edition distinctly elaborates on narrative scenes, causing textual complications. These findings suggest that rather than the 30-folio edition being an abridged version of the 36-folio edition, it is more likely that the 36-folio edition expanded upon a common source text. In the concluding marriage narrative, the 24-folio edition again abbreviates content compared to the 30-folio edition, whereas both the 36-folio and 23-folio editions show an expansion of narrative detail, marking this section as exhibiting the greatest variance among the four editions. Connecting these characteristics to the composite printing style of the 30-folio edition, it can be inferred that the 30-folio edition was produced by slightly altering a preceding, now lost, ‘33-folio edition’ by primarily increasing characters per half-folio from folio 3 to 20 and then adopting an existing printing format from folio 21 onward. Additionally, it can be assumed that the 36-fascicle version was a redaction that elaborated on the military narrative sections of the ‘33-fascicle version.’